Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Rulers and Rules

6' x 12', latex, glazing medium

As I painted this, I kept being reminded of Harry Davis. He was my foundation drawing professor, and his pet peeve was ruled lines. He banned rulers from his class, yet he insisted we draw straight lines. I totally get it, and especially during this project, where I painted quite a few long straight lines with a script liner brush. The handpainted line is beautiful.

The next year I had Robert Weaver for an illustration-focused drawing class. He insisted that every straight line be made with a ruler. He expressed every bit as much outrage as had Prof. Davis (for non-ruled lines) that anyone would do otherwise.

Were I to go back in time, I would stump them both with a Mary Yeager quote, "Rules are for amateurs". Mary used this phrase most often in reference to gardening, but it's applicable to almost everything, and it's really fun to say. Mary is also responsible for the "Dumbass with a dream" title I've used on a couple paintings. Some friends have chattered of about collecting and publishing Mary's unique truisms. If you ever run across a book titled "Yeagerisms", buy it!

I wish I could see this in person. It seems to have the perfect combination of . ... oh, now I have to think .. .. . delicacy and materiality; illustration,yes, but on a level that transcends mere description. Plus it has fabulous air, scale and control. Not just control like "wow, look at those edges and perspective, etc." -- but a more elusive kind of control, the air vs earth balance, if you have any idea what I mean. Oh, and the detail against the larger forms is just divine. The color too -- restrained but not dull or expected. Brava.

I'm a big fan of your paintings, and particularly, of your way of handling the paint, the sort of brushwork and the variety of marks on the canvas. And I love how "painterly" they are, how you can let the paint be paint and still transform it into a myriad other things. So it really is amazing that you can make this other work, even if it's illustration. It's so precise and straight. A lot of artists have one one way of rendering things.

Thank-you Luis. I would miss the knuckle-down discipline of this form, were it not my day job. It's also satisfying to work towards a quantifiable outcome. It fulfills a need for accomplishment, as well as pays some bills.

And so it balances the more dicey and uncertain outcomes of explorative work.